Quentin Tarantino's ‘Hateful Eight’ lawsuit against Gawker dismissed

A federal judge in California has dismissed Tarantino's lawsuit against Gawker Media, which the director filed in January, after the company's Defamer blog published a link to his script “The Hateful Eight.”

Tarantino's suit contended that Gawker “crossed the journalistic line” and contended that Gawker Media had engaged in copyright infringement.

“There was nothing newsworthy or journalistic about Gawker Media facilitating and encouraging the public's violation of Plaintiff's copyright in the Screenplay, and it's conduct will not shield Gawker Media from liability for their unlawful activity,” Tarantino's suit read.

However, Judge John F. Walter sided with Gawker, which had earlier filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March.

“[N]owhere in these paragraphs or anywhere else in the Complaint does Plaintiff allege a single act of direct infringement committed by any member of the general public that would support Plaintiff's claim for contributory infringement. Instead, Plaintiff merely speculates that some direct infringement must have taken place. For example, Plaintiff's Complaint fails to allege the identity of a single third-party infringer, the date, the time, or the details of a single instance of third-party infringement, or, more importantly, how Defendant allegedly caused, induced, or materially contributed to the infringement by those third parties,” Martin noted in his decision.

Walter added, “Court GRANTS Defendant's Motion on the grounds that Plaintiff has failed to adequately plead facts establishing direct infringement by a third party or facts that would demonstrate Defendant either caused, induced, or materially contributed to the alleged direct infringement of those third party infringers.”

The judge did, however, grant a leave to amend the claim for “contributory infringement,” which should be filed by May 1st.